IN response to Ken Whittaker’s recent request for Helen Jones MP to explain ‘how allowing more than a million eastern Europeans into our jobs market has affected the pay of British workers’ the answer is, very little.

The Government’s own advisors the migration advisory committee published a report saying ‘sustained immigration over the past 20 years has not harmed British workers’ chances of finding a job and has only had a minimal impact on wage.’ They also concluded that immigration had made little difference to crime, housing, hospitals, schools or welfare payments.

The MAC concluded there had been a small negative impact on the wages of the low-paidÿin some parts of the country with large numbers of foreign workers. But overall it judged that the arrival of migrants had not had a major impact on Briton’s pay or prospects of finding a job.

Unfortunately this report was ignored by the mainstream media because it didn’t fit the Government’s right wing rhetoric of blaming the unemployed, the poor and the disabled for the country’s woes. In fact anybody but the bankers who are the true culprits.

Consequently people like Ken Whittaker have to turn to a member of the opposition to find the truth.

GRAHAM BRINKSMAN Warrington